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Chapter Six
A small amount of light filtered through the cave from somewhere I couldn’t see, but it did make it easy to see where the creature was sitting. His eyes met mine, and a weird smile came across his face.
“Sleep well?” He stood as he spoke.
My eyes followed him. “I guess.”
“Good,” he said, his eyes moving above me towards wherever the light was coming through the cave. His slow blink caught my attention. It was almost like a when a cat was happy and content after fighting with you for attention. “Not many days until mating time.”
There he was, talking about mating again. Is that all he thought about? “You keep bringing that up like it’s going to change something.” I swung my legs over the side of the bed and dropped to the ground. “I have to go back.”
“Can’t,” he said simply. “Told you last night.”
“If you can go there to get me, you can take me back,” I said. “I have a family.” My mind drifted to the situation back home. The warlock who was expecting me to marry him and my sister with her own life going. What would happen to them if I stayed here?
“Will die,” he said. “Marked, remember.”
“Can’t you take it back?”
He huffed. “No,” he growled and turned away. “Stay. Be happy.”
“Why a human?” I said it before thinking about it. “You have to have creatures like you here. Why not one of them?”
He turned slowly back towards me, but the sadness in his eyes made me wish I hadn’t asked. “Dead. My brothers and I are only ones left.”
I paused. That was why they went to another world to get their mates. That was why he chose me. “I can’t help you with this,” I said quietly.
“No choice,” he said, reaching for my hand. “Meet brothers.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but the force of him pulling me along made me rethink it. I wasn’t sure I could walk and protest at the same time. Not at the speed he was moving. I almost ran to catch up.
We moved through the forest, my feet squishing into the wet dirt. The air was thick and my skin was instantly soaked through. We were living in the middle of some kind of weird monster rainforest.
“Wait, this is not how it was just a day or two ago?” I looked around at the trees, they were almost as tall as a small skyscraper.
“Forest change depending on mood,” he said. “Sometimes happy, sometimes sad.”
I glanced at him. “Geker controls it.”
“One of your brothers?” I expected they would have some kind of connection to the environment we were in, but to control the forest and the way it felt and smelled was something more powerful than most of the earth witches I’d run into.
“Yes,” he said simply before stopping suddenly. “Here.”
I walked past him into the most perfect meadow. The trees seemed to lean over it and give it shade from the sun, but it still managed to break through in places. Bright orange blossoms the size of my hand sprouted from the plants at the edge of the meadow, just below the treeline. In the center was a large stone table with symbols I didn’t recognize.
The sound of trees moving caught my attention, and I shrank back to Kael. He let his large, clawed hand rest on my back, almost as if he were attempting to tell me nothing would happen with him around.
Two large creatures stepped into the meadow across from us. One stood at least seven feet and was built similarly to Kael. He had large arms and legs made from winding vines and bark, and a tail that had some kind of green spikes on the end. His head was shaped like a dinosaur with a longer snout and green eyes, with bark creating the sharp features and jaw. His hands were oversized but had spots where purple and blue flowers grew between his fingers.
The other creature was wider, with a tail that swept the grass behind it. Large gray bursts of smoke bellowed from his form. He looked as though he could vanish into it if he tried. His head was similar to Kaels and his clawed hands curled when he saw me. His cobalt eyes fixed on me and then back to Kael.
Grass rustling to the left caught my attention, and two other creatures stepped out. The ice colored creature from before and one that seemed to emanate heat from its red and orange-colored skin. His bright red eyes focused on me as I tried not to stare, but his skin was a unique mixture of reds and blacks, like he was a volcano waiting to erupt. His tail swayed behind him as he and the others moved closer.
“Chosen mate?” The creature made from bark and vines said, looking at me. “Or can we choose?”
“Mine, Geker,” Kael growled, and he stepped back, his head down slightly. “Mate.”
The ice creature walked closer and cocked its head. “She not choose,” he said with a slight smile.
“She will,” Kael said, pulling me behind him. “Not choosing you.”
The ice creature’s blue eyes flicked between me and Kael before he showed his teeth. “Fair game until mating.”
“You not touch.”
I wasn’t sure what I should do. I never in a million years thought I’d be standing in a rainforest in some monster den with two incredibly lethal monsters fighting over me.
The one made of fire and ash stepped forward and pulled the ice creature back. “He has time. If she doesn’t choose, Ilker can have.”
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